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on your taxes. At the end of the year, it
is time for little keeping Up with Cougar's going to
welcome to a form of BYU great ad quarterback scientists
to break down what happened on the bye week Will
BYU be healthy and strong?
Speaker 3: Will they be prepped?
Speaker 2: Will they be ready for a roadmatchup versus Texas Tech.
Things are getting real and they're getting real fast here
as we get into championship type of weekends. It could
be BYU Texas Tech. It could be BYU Utah in
a rivalry holy war in Arlington. Anything can happen at
the end of the year of the big two of
his college football Cannibalism and parody are very much alive
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one of their locations, and you can utilize the Crudal
fifteen coupon code online as well. Let's get out to
the hotline. Welcome in former bou Great the Quarterback Scientists.
We got John Beck on the line. John, how the
heck are you doing?
Speaker 4: Good man?
Speaker 5: It's definitely feels like that's that championship time of the year,
doesn't it.
Speaker 3: Dude?
Speaker 2: I get psyched about it, especially now that we're in
a conference right like you know, we were a part
of it, Mountain West Conference. It was awesome to be
able to seal the championship, the regular season championship, you know,
versus in two thousand and six versus New Mexico was awesome.
But it's even at a greater scale now, right, college
football has has changed significantly, and BYU with it. Now
that Bilway's a part of the Big Boys club, it
just means more and there's more eyeballs on BYU.
Speaker 3: The branding, the imaging.
Speaker 2: The equity that has been built from like nineteen seventy
two to present day. Now it's finally really paying off
for BYU.
Speaker 5: Yeah, this is an amazing time to be a student
athlete at YU, to be a fan for BUYU. The
Big Twelve Conference is an amazing conference, and November football
is so exciting, especially when you're sitting there at no
You're exactly right about being in a conference. It's fun
to be paying attention to what's going on in other
conference games. It's fun to know where you are in
the standings and to be an undefeated team sitting at
the top of the Big Twelve with a a huge
game this weekend. As a competitor, as an athlete and
as a fan of Billia football, it's just all great
fields right now and November football, Like like we were saying,
it's just such an amazing time of the year for
all levels. You go to the high school level, it
equals playoffs, go to the college level. It's that buying
for those top spots, you know, the chance to play
in the conference championship, And it's just such a great
time right now to be a BIU fan. And I
think that they've done such a great job of setting
themselves up for what can really be maybe one of
the best Novembers that the program has had in a long, long,
long time.
Speaker 3: One of the.
Speaker 2: Difficult schedules that they're having to face two in this
guntlet They started off with U of A on the road,
Utah home. They beat Iowas State on the road. Now
they get Texas Tech on the road. A Rod stated
that this was the most difficult stretch of games in
BYU football history, and by has been up to the task,
having won three straight, one in overtime. One that was
you know, pretty close versus Utah twenty four to twenty one,
and then another one on the road versus Iowa State
being down.
Speaker 3: You no, not too.
Speaker 2: Big in the first app but it seemed like it
was very big in the first half. Now they got
Texas Tech, TCU, Cincinnati, and UCF. How do you navigate
this back end of the schedule in order to kind
of just stay right, stay on task, you know, get healthy,
be strong. Obviously, the the the bye week came at
a very fratuitous time. How does BYU navigate this?
Speaker 3: Do you think?
Speaker 5: Well? I think the best way is to focus one
day at a time, to not even look at the
game that's ahead of you. I always try to tell guys,
you know, when I'm especially speaking with quarterbacks going into
big games. Let the game be Saturday. You focus on Monday,
you focus on Tuesday, you focus on Wednesday. All of
those things lead up to the game. What can be
something that pulls you away from it is when you
start feeling all of the pressures, the worries or whatever
you need to think about because of the Saturday game,
the impact. You know, it's like an Olympian going to
the Olympics. You don't want to think about the week
of the Olympic, the what ifs. What if it plays
out this way? What if my training and all of
this this happens, or what if it doesn't play out
in the first you know, like let's say it's an
event where you have like a preliminary and then a finals.
What if my preliminary heat or match doesn't go this way,
and then what you don't want to think about the
what ifs. What you do is you put the work
in each day of the week and then you just
let it happen. It's the same with conference play. It
would be so easy right now. And I think this
is what fans enjoy. This is why we have talk shows,
is because you can talk about all the different scenarios. Okay,
you know, look what happened when we beat Utah, And
look what happened now that Utah went and beat Cincinnati
and people thought that Cincinnati might be vying for a
conference you know, title game, and now because they lost,
and then after beat Iowa State, Iowa State loses again.
There's all these things that can really distract you from
what is the most important thing. And the most important
thing on a Monday is preparation Monday and Monday's football practice.
That's all that matters. Then you have to go each
day of the week just like that. I think it's
a competitive advantage to the team that has the most
players and coaches that have that ability to do that
they can keep the main thing, the main thing and
just focus on that. And for a BYU team that yes,
quite honestly, the road ahead of them, like they have
a big one this weekend, and if they can get
through that, I think that all of those games that
are after this they're going to be favored in. And
so it would be very easy to say, oh my gosh,
if we can get through Texas Tech, it is a
road to the conference championship game. And the key is
to not even worry about that, to let the fans
think about those things, let them get excited. But as
a player, you walk in Monday morning and all you
care about is Monday b.
Speaker 3: YU versus Texas Tech this week.
Speaker 2: I'm feeling that BA you should be healthier than they
have been over the last three weeks.
Speaker 3: I think LJ will be ready to go.
Speaker 2: I think I think that our linebackers should be healthy
year than they have been. But Texas Tech is no joke.
They've lost one game, it was on the road to ASU,
and other than that they've had dominating victories. Like I
don't know, I'm looking at the closest scores. That may
have been the Utah game. That was the closest game
that they've had. Outside of that one loss, everybody else
they've beaten by like twenty one plus points every single game.
Speaker 3: What do we know about Texas Tech.
Speaker 5: I mean, I remember watching the ASU Texas Tech game
being somebody I like yourself from the state of Arizona,
great state of Arizona. You know, I grew up watching
Arizona State football. I still follow ASU football and knowing
what was being talked about about this Texas Tech team,
the amount of money that they put into the program,
the players that they brought in, the fact that they
were they're going to be on BYU schedule. I paid
attention to that game, and Texas Tech came out to
jump and went ahead on Arizona, and then Arizona State
put together this big comeback at the end, and you
know what does some of it have to do. It's
a home game and away game for Texas Tech. A
little bit that was still early in the season. I
think it's going to be interesting to see what it
does when now Texas Tech and both of these teams
are on this gigantic stage. I know by Youth played
a big new kickoff game before, but you know, hey,
this is college game Day, this is on the road,
this is I'm trying to think the last time game
day went to Texas Tech. It's got to be almost
probably way back in the Mahomes era, my guess, in
some of those games. I mean, it might have even
been the game when the Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes
went off for like twelve hundred yards of offense, somewhere
around that era. But you know, it's going to be
interesting to see how it shakes down now when both
of these teams. It feels like there's so much on
the line. I think for a player like Bear, who
is still green in terms of college football, He's only
played eight college football games. Sometimes he's walking out on
the field and he may just feel like, you know what,
I'm just going to do what I've always done. I'm
just going to go out there and be one of eleven.
I'm going to play the best I can. And you know,
I think Bear does a great job because it's all
new to him of just you know what, what can
I do. I've got nothing to worry about. I'm just
going to go out there play what I can play.
I'm still very new to college football. I think that
could be an advantage in a situation like this. But
it's you know, definitely an exciting game I mean, I
wish I could get to the stadium in that environment.
I think it's going to be amazing for the BIU
fans that travel there to be a part of that.
Speaker 2: No doubt about it, John, we've seen progress from Bear,
it seems week over week. This last game on the road,
he threw for a lot of yards and was very accurate,
was very good. What have you seen specifically in his
progress that makes you optimistic that he can head out
on the road after a bye week and be just
as good or even better than what he's showcased thus far.
Speaker 5: Well, I think bye weeks always help you become just
a little healthier. I think those guys, as you know,
this time of year, you're playing with something, whether it's
this you know, slight ankle injury, a little shoulder ding.
Your ribs are a little bit beat up. You've been
dealing with bruising in an area that you can't get
to go away because you keep getting hit on it.
All players this time of year, when they get a
bye week, it's not ability to just be a little
more fresh, to let the body heal. And I know,
look with how much Bears ran the football, I guarantee
his body's been beat up a little bit, you know,
without divulging too much information, he's just like everybody else where,
he's having to play through some things, and so I
think it's going to be really good for him to
get healthy. I think Bear has done such a good
job in decision making, and we've talked about it multiple
times on the show of just how good he's done
at it's going to sound silly, but taking good sacks
and taking off and running with the football when nothing's there,
and not trying to do too much, especially laid in games.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 5: There's been a few games where Byu has had to
play from behind him the fourth quarter, and it's very
easy as a young quarterback to take some of the
chances that you would have taken in high school football
and to try that in college football and have it
end up not working out. I see that constantly. Bear's
just done such a good job again of recognizing is
it worth the risk, or can I do something else?
Or can I, you know, just eat the ball here
and live to play the next play. And I think
that in a game like this this weekend, those attributes
of Bear, the ability to step on a field and
remain calm, the ability to be in a shootout in
a college game, and to what I think is Bear
is just used to this. He's just used to being
in shootouts because that was literally his high school scenario
ninety percent of the time, and he's doing it on
a big stage. I think all of those will benefit
him this Saturday.
Speaker 2: What's crazy is you've talked about this from the inception
of the Bear Bachmeyer era. You said, Bear Bachmeyer throughout
his entire high school career just found a way to
win lat In games through you through but also most
definitely with his running ability. And we continue to see that,
like he hasn't really changed much. Like the Bear Bachmeyer
brand is what it is, It's who he is, and
I'm surprised it's translating to the collegiate level.
Speaker 3: It doesn't always do that, you know.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean here's what I would say. This is
one of the really cool things about how good this
BYU football team is and also what this BYU team
was before Bear got here. This was again, without divulging
too much information, this is what was part of the
conversations leading up to Bear looking at BYU was just
look at how BYU has utilized abilities in the Jaron Halls,
the j k ret Slash, the Zach Wilson's and how
Bear's game. That's what his game has been in high
school football. I mean, you can go to the kids
highlight tape, or you can look at the stats and
late in games, go look and see how his legs
contributed to either keeping his team in the game or
helping his team win the game. And then so to
go and place him in a scheme where Aaron utilizes
that ability with his quarterbacks. I mean, go look at
some of Jake Retslav's games in his start and how
his legs helped the team or how the designed You know,
you have these quick outlet passes or screen passes and
if they're not there, you take off, and they built
in QB draw. The line is blocking QB draw, but
there's quick throws on the edges, and based off of
the shell and numbers, you either throw the quick pass
or you take off on the draw. That has fit
so well in what Bear is doing because it's what
Bear has always done, and so I think like you
could not have asked for a better scheme fit with
also experienced players around him, Like this is not an
offense that's only been here doing this for a year
or two. What can be tricky is when a new
offensive coordinator is trying to instill his offense in players
that were recruits or that were built by the old system,
the system that has been at UIU for a long time.
The players understand it well, you know, it's just the
timing that's probably the best word, the timing of what
Bear brings. Because of his experience and what this offense
has been building, it came together in the right timing
so well.
Speaker 2: John Beck here on esp and the Fan. This segment
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Speaker 3: John.
Speaker 2: The supporting cast has also buoyed up Bear.
Speaker 3: In my opinion, LJ.
Speaker 2: Martin got a little deemed up last this last game
versus Iowa State.
Speaker 3: LJ.
Speaker 2: Martin exits the game in the first quarter, Yet a
Rod and Bear and the supporting cast that remained found
a way to put up offensively. You know, thirty four points, right,
You had the defensive score that maybe changed the tides,
but this offense was actually very productive, very efficient. What
does that say about a Rod and his play calling,
ability to have a running back who has essentially been
the bell cow back and the core of what this
offense does from an identity standpoint, him ultimately finding a
way to win without him.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, it's trust. I feel like this was a
game where they were able to say, Okay, we just
lost LJ. We're still going to be able to utilize Bear.
We're going to put Preston back there, a little bit
different style of back, but time to do the trust
thing where we're gonna go out there. We're going to
win this game playing the style of football where we're
going to throw it for you know, three hundred plus yards.
We're going to do the things that we have in
our offense that we haven't had to lean on all
of the time. But we're going to lean on him
right now. And I trust that, and and you know what,
and it showed and I know that, like, well, you know, here,
here's what's going to happen. There's also going to be
in the conversation what these teams, like the Iowa States,
you know, I know that for some oh well, Iowa
State went out and lost the next game, maybe they're
not quite the team everybody thought they would at the
end of the day. Playing on the road at Iowa
State has been a tough place for a lot of teams,
and BYU was down early and they had to find
a way to come back and win. You can't take
that away from a team just because of the outcome
of a game the following week. What they did in
that moment of time, how they had to kind of
place more on bear shoulders, how a lot of the
guys stepped up and really made a lot of plays
in the past game. That's still what BYU is capable
of doing against any opponent, and it's probably going to
have to show up this Saturday. You know, Texas Tech
really is a very strong defensive team. They went out
and brought guys in, spent a lot of money, and
they really bolstered their defense. It's going to be a
challenge for BYU, but it's going to be great because
these are the types of games that you find out.
Are we the type of team that can go out
there and win the Big twelve, go into a collegiate
playoff game and win that game. Those type of games
take everything. So if I'm a part of this team,
if I'm on that staff, I'm saying the opportunity that
we had to go out and play a game that
second half without LJ and make the plays that we did,
that shows us what we are capable of in those
games where we're gonna need all of the weapons that
we have. Right. I mean, Ben, you remember that conversation
we had back in the Bronco era, right when he
had big team meeting about are you using all of
your weapons?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 5: When I look at teams, that has always stuck with me.
You want to go win big games, you want to
go beat really good teams, you have to be using
all of your weapons. And so to me, that Iowa
State game was a game that BYU got to sharpen
some of its other weapons.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love that that perspective. John. A couple last
things before we let you go. LJ.
Speaker 2: Martin's injury to me, now, I'm a physician, but I
work with a lot of physicians, and I stayed at
a holiday in last night. It looked like an ac
joint injury, and they pulled them right, so it could
have been something worse. But he wasn't like holding his
shoulder in a way that tells me that it was
like dislocated or whatever. You I know, you've been in
the exercise physiology world. You've taken all of your your
your classes and have your certifications, et cetera. As a
as a biomechanical coach, but also a person that's familiar
with the human anatomy.
Speaker 3: AC joint separations.
Speaker 2: To me, grade two, grade three, you have a little
bit of pain there, but you can play through those, right,
those aren't all that serious if it is an AC
joint separation.
Speaker 5: I would say players that are non throwers, you can
play through AC separations. The impact. You know, they'll shoot
you up to try to numb it as best they
can depending on the grade. Some trainers like to use
also a tape job to kind of help alleviate that
distance where that that ligament is is spraying or torn.
You know a lot of the times you can see
that clasical kind of like sitting up for a thrower.
This is where it gets. It's interesting. I played through
an AC separation my sophomore year and had to get
shot up for a handful of games. There's different levels.
Some guys they can have very mild AC separations, and
they don't have the same overhead pain. They fill it
a little bit, but some of them have more of
a pain kind of at extension and as if you
were to raise your arm in front of your body
and then start to cross to your opposite side, you
can get a little pinching pain there. Those type of
guys can still go out and throw the football at
practice and all they feel is like a little mild
that bothers a little bit. Other guys when they separate
their shoulder Grade two maybe even some like grade ones,
that can be really painful. You can't even get your
shirt on. You're in a lot of pain just trying
to put your arm in a position to get your
shirt on. And so to go out at practice as
a thrower, it is super painful. And so, but the
team doesn't want to shoot you up for practice. They
don't want to shoot you up for a game. So
your practice reps really get hindered because if your inability
to throw the ball like you normally do. And so
you know the whole AC separation. I've been around a
lot of receivers, a lot of linemen, a lot of
running backs. Man, they just shoot it up played through it,
they're the same person. Well, practice quarterbacks, that's where you
see some of the biggest thing, Like if they're unable
to go out and practice the same way, that has
a great effect on the whole team because of what
practice looks like. And then they go out in games
and I remember the first time I got shot up,
I was like, what in the world. I feel like
I have noodle arm and I'm trying to like be
accurate in a pregame warm up and the coach is like, hey,
how you feeling well? I have the ability to move
my arm now, but man, it's just tough. I'm not
really accurate. And so that's the kind of the balance
between throwers and non throwers of AC's. Everybody is capable
of playing through an AC because you're gonna get it
shot up, but there is an impact whether you're a
thrower or non thrower throughout the week of.
Speaker 2: Practice BYU's offense is going to have to continue to
put up points. Texas Tech knows knows how to score
points offensively sixty seven, sixty two, forty five, thirty four,
thirty five, forty two. Their lowest was twenty two on
the road versus ASU and that loss, but it was
only a four point game. They beat Oklahoma State forty
two to zero, and then they just beat Kansas State
forty three to twenty. Can this BYU offense keep pace
with this Texas Tech Red Raiders offense?
Speaker 3: Is the question?
Speaker 5: Well, I'm really excited to see what our defense does.
I know that that was kind of an offensive question
about the offense, what they're capable of doing. You know,
I think so much of it is going to be
what our defense is going to do to that offense.
You know, this is an interesting case because Texas Tech
started the season with one quarterback, going back to that
ASU game. I actually think that when they kind of
came out the gates rolling a little bit, I wonder
if they were believing a little bit of maybe their
own press of like, man, we are a really good team.
Look we're just steamrolling right now. In the beginning of
the game, Arizona State team that won the Big Twelve
last year, and then the tides turned. But then they
lose their quarterback. The backup steps in plays and now
he's injured. They go back to their quarterback, and if
my memory is right, I didn't get to see the
entire Kansas State game. I got to catch parts of
it here there between my kids' games, But I don't
think it was a smooth road the entire time. There
was a time in the game where it was very
tight versus Kansas State, and Texas Tech was having a
little bit of a tough time offensively to be consistent,
and then because of some turnovers, Like I'm pretty sure
there was a couple turnovers in that game that really
turned things in Kansas State then kind of fell apart
a little bit and Texas Tech ran away with it.
But I'm really curious what is our BIU defense going
to look like against a team and now a quarterback
that is in his second start coming back from the injury.
Time off for quarterbacks sometimes can be good and sometimes
can be really difficult when you get thrust back into it.
So I think so much of this how I'm going
to answer the question offensively, I think so much much
of what our offense is going to look like will
be dictated by what our defense is doing and how
they're handling the Texas Tech offense. Because there may be
some schematic things where you can say our ability to
potentially run the football well with LJ and Bear and
the other running backs. If we can run the ball well,
that keeps their offense off of the field, and there
could be a time of possession game going on if
BYU's defense is doing a really, really good job. And
so to me, like as a play caller, so much
of how you call a game is dependent on the
other phases as well. Special teams to me, special teams.
Speaker 2: All right, sounds like we may have lost John, But
that was a great segment. Great segment brought to you
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I think the last thing that he was saying is
intriguing to me, though he's more intrigued by what the
defense can do to steymy that prolific Texas Tech red
Raider offense. And I was looking at sp plus rankings
and efficiency metrics here. They were published yesterday Texas Tech
offense ranks ninth in the country, their defense is eighth,
and their special teams is eightieth. Interesting, you heard John
say special teams.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: BYU's offense is twenty fifth in the nation, sixteenth on defense,
and then number six on special teams. What has BYU
done so effectively this season? Complementary football, finding a way
to win games in a I would say a traditional
football since then, even an untraditional football, since complimentary football
has always been a part of the game. We tend
to focus so much on offense, sometimes defense, but never
the special teams unit. BYU's special teams unit has been
a lead under Kelly Papinga. Also, Jay Hill was an
elite special teams coach once upon a time before becoming
a head coach at Weaver State, so he oversees some
of that special teams as well.
Speaker 3: That could be the differentiator.
Speaker 2: That's the same thing or the same reasons why by
you found a way to win versus Utah a few
weeks ago. It was through special teams and I'd say,
just complimentary football. Guys, great segment. We're gonna take a
brief time out. We'll be back though after a word
from our sponsors. Guys, don't go anywhere. Still plenty to
get to on a Monday edition of Cougar Sports. Here
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Speaker 1: Time to celebrate the greatest team sport known to man,
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Little college Football. Second, going to welcome in a former
BYU Great College Football Insider, NFL Insider, talk to some
BYU Football and the college football landscape. It's going to
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let's welcome in the six foot three and fifty pounder
that still runs a four five forty Brady Pepingka. He
can still dunk to this day. Brady Papingo's online p Pop.
Speaker 3: How you live in?
Speaker 5: Hey?
Speaker 4: Hey, what's up? Man?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: That's I mean something when you're forty six, you know so, yeah,
that's pretty exciting.
Speaker 2: Do you think you could play and start at a
college football Like, let's say eligibility was available to you
and you could play college football, make a little nil money,
maybe they pay you, you know, I don't know, I
don't know what you know what what level of performance
you'd be at, But I mean, judging by your your
speed and your jumping ability, I feel like bepop could
give you ten to twenty maybe thirty reps on defense
a game. Could you start for a Division one fbs
P four program right now?
Speaker 4: What a fun thing to imagine, right, Your body when
I'm here is like health, the state I don't have,
like any bumps and bruises or any strains that I'm
having to fight through. You know, I think I could
do anything right, But reality is is I'm not sure
my neck would hold up.
Speaker 3: Bro.
Speaker 4: You know, my big thing is dudes in the face.
That was what I did. That's you know, got me
my name Hammerhead. And you know, I'm not sure the
neck has got enough cartilage in there to handle thirty
players in college football.
Speaker 2: You know, but uh uh, you just had to speed rush.
It was all only passing situations.
Speaker 4: Then that then that you know, puts puts stress in
the whole other parts of your body such as your
akillies and you know, your knees and you know all
that kind of stuff. So it's all like it's all
it all seems really fun when you're just training, but
in reality, the playing the torque, the wear and tear
you go through is so much more than just training.
You know, it's a whole other level of pushing your body,
and you know, at forty six, I don't even want
to find that out because I don't want to go
to a training room. You know, I don't want to
be in rehab, bro, So I don't even think I
would prefer not even to think about it. As a
matter of fact, Dude, I did my thing, man. I
took that sponge and I freaking rung that sponge out
and drained it for every last drop possible.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 4: That's why I don't have any problems. They I'll never
go back, Dude. I laid it all out there, give
up base yels, gave up times, my family, fingers, tans, bones,
brain cells, gave it all, gave it all, man, and
I got all back.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: So I'm at peace. But I don't need to do
anything I can. I'm more than happy to impart my
wisdom on anybody willing to listen. But outside of that, yeah,
I'm that's as far as it goes.
Speaker 2: No regrets, Love it, Brady. What's the health like of
this BYU football team? Do you think heading into Texas Tech?
I feel like the bye we couldn't have come at
a better time for BYU.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but I mean this is where your depth is tested,
you know, and I think every team is going to
go go going through it in some way. Every guy
is gonna who's played significant minutes has got something uncomfortable.
They're gonna have to deal with. The One thing that
I'm excited to see if it pans out this way,
I'm not sure it will, is to see these young guys.
Now we have We've seen flashes of guys come in,
you know, h on the defensive side of the ball
with our with Isaiah and and Jack having to kind
of deal with their ailements. You know, you've seen Kafushi
come in to play well all all they're come in
and play well. I offered, excuse me, number thirty, come
in and play well. We've had, you know, offensively in
the backfield. You know, we we got to you know,
Preston's come in and as a as a streaker, you know,
inside guy who's kind of your change up fly, sweet
kind of guy has showed out well as from his
conversion to City. I think we got some really good
depth in addition to see ony Moa and some of
the other guys that have played that haven't have got
no little reps. I mean, I'm really intrigued to see
what the Mooney can do. You know, if given the opportunity,
I think he run. He hits the whole hard. Uh
he's a little smaller guy, but how hard he hits
it to me is great. Just he needs to keep
two hands on the ball, that's it. I mean, he
fumbled against West Virginia, but I thought he had two
really good runs against them. And then you got, you know,
some other guys like you know, the pain kid. You know,
I think his logan paint his name. Who's a red
shirt freshman, bigger build, smaller, stubby running back, which you know,
whenever I played against running backs that were short and study,
they were not easy to bring down. You know, the
hide behind the offensive line, and they have enough toughness
and explosiveness to hit that gap. And you get. The
thing that we can't forget either, is our our blocking
scheme is a zone blocking scheme that makes it to
where we actually have one of the greater, more vast
reaches of talent that can play in that scheme, which
has been proven through the NFL over and over again.
You know, the Shanahans made that popular. You know with
their basically rolodex of running backs rushing for a thousand
yards that they either drafted late in the draft or
didn't even draft at all. And so we have that
same kind of scheme, and then on top of it,
we have a legit passing scheme that can also create
a lot of imbalances and keep it events honest and
help our running game thrive. You know, so I'm excited.
To me, it's all about depth. Of course, you want
the guys that are your your bell cows and your
your studs and your dominators to come back and participate
and do what they can. But you can't really rush
them back either. You know. You gotta go according to
their body clock, into their to their health. But this
is why we've built the team, this is why Harvey
Ungdah and all the other coaches have developed these young guys,
is to get them out there and have them be productive,
which I have really mixed. I mean, I've seen these
guys in practice. I have confidence they can go in
there and they can play well and help us win
football games. And that's that's what Klane and his staff
has built over the years.
Speaker 2: Brady, this Uh, this BYU Football team is going against
arguably their toughest foe in Texas Tech. Estics Tech has
one loss. It was on the road. It was a
one score game to ASU. Every other game they've won
by I believe, in average of thirty four points. The
closest margin was eighteen points versus Houston. They've been dominant
in their wins, be it on the road or at home.
How can BYU keep up? What's bo's competitive advantage do
you think in this game?
Speaker 4: Well, the first thing is you have to give Texas
Tech credit. You know, they've built a really balanced team.
Their defensive line is as physical as a defensive front
in our conference. Maybe in college football. They're right up
there with our guys. They're almost immovable. Their edge guys
are the two best edge guys number nine to thirty
one in the country, the tandem. I mean, they are streakers.
If you watch the Arizona State game over thirty one,
ye had two sacks right back to the back, and
then they're like, oops, we better stop blocking this guy
one on one. We better start chipping in keeping tight
ends on them. You know, we better start kind of
like handling ourselves. So all of a sudden, you know,
We're in a situation where you know you're facing the
team that has power, they have speed, and then you
know they've got weapons on the outside. Offensively, they're tall, long,
they got a running back and twenty that can just
hit a home run any play. If you saw him
against Kansas State, I mean, he was a nightmare out
on the edges. And then you have number eight who
comes in as a nice compliment with the straight forward
power running style that's boring in between the tackles. So
they check all their boxes. The only real question mark
is I just don't know about the quarterback. You know
they've had these quarterbacks in and out, but the reality
is is that you know they've they've played well enough to,
like you said, control games and win running away. And
so they're a talented team. The biggest thing that we
have to do is first you have to understand that
we're just as talented across the board as they are.
We're talented in different ways. The second thing is as
understanding that in any of these games, and I think
our team has understand it as well. Like against Utah,
I think as a fair one last week, and I
always stay in even at Arizona, I thought were three
games where we understood that their talent level is as
good as ours, and the way you win is you've
got to be clean in your execution. Because as soon
as we cleaned up our execution versus all those teams,
it became a game of execution and we won out.
And that's what I think this game is going to
come down to. As we stay tight and don't lose
our minds the first part of the game, because it's
such a high game and you're playing Texas Tech and
blah blah blah blah blah. If everybody can keep their
minds and have their wherewithal and just focus on execution,
I think we'll be in a good place because that's
what it comes down. You've got to be able to execute,
and you've got to be able to execute the cleanest,
and that generally is the determining factor when talent is
equal of who comes out on top.
Speaker 3: LJ.
Speaker 2: Martin is listing on the depth chart. I imagine he's
going to be available to play versus Texas Tech, and
the shoulder injury he sustained versus Iowa State is not
as serious as some may have thought. That's a big
boon for by you getting LJ back this week.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, but I think you always have to, like
I said, be willing to relign your depth, especially there, don't.
I don't. I don't think it's fair to the staff,
to the younger guys to just say LJ, we're riding
or dying with him, which I don't think the team
thinks that way. Obviously, last week in there or the
week before Againside the State, it kind of worked out
that way because they only had so many guys up
righty to play in that game. Based off of who's
traveling and you know who they're trying to render those
kinds of things. Now, I'm sure this week changes, but
LJ is not. I mean, okay, let me get this.
LJ is really good, phenomenal. What makes a running game go, though,
is always the offensive line. And that's what I'm most
excited about. And that's why the fact is their offensive
line is intact. Uh, there's consistency there. We have the
same guys playing week in and week out, so they're
they're cohesive, and I do believe you get a guy
who could run hard behind them one cut, you know,
Roderick's gonna scheme them up. Regardless of who's in there,
They're gonna play to their strengths and they're gonna scheme
up this scheme to where we're gonna be able to
on the ball. Uh, that's who we are. And then
when you have a quarterback who can run the ball
also and then throw it, that also opens up alleys
and and holes in the running game. So I think
a running game with or without MJ is still going
to be really good. Obviously with him he had. He
adds this level of physicality and talent and physical raw
ability that most guys don't have, which is always a bonus.
But I don't think it's so hinging on him being
available that we just all of a sudden can't run
the ball. If we can't run the ball, usually it'll
come down to execution. Uh, missed targets, you know, poor vision,
you know things that basically like we can control. Because
we can execute, we can find holes against this defense.
I promise you. That's what we saw with Kansas State.
We've seen it with all teams, even Utah. You know
their their biggest problem is is Dan Pire was unhealthy.
He had a he had this right ankle injury which
he's been dealing with all year and he just hasn't
been able to run the same. So we really haven't
seen up until last week in Kansas State. But you know,
Pansas State quarterback, it's more of a slasher. He's not
really a power quarterback. But they've never really seen a
power offense, power running offense like ours with a quarterback
that can also run power football, you know, So it'll
be interesting to test him in that way and see
how they'll respond.
Speaker 2: Pretty papinga here on ESPN the Fan discussing little college football,
Little BAYU football as they prep for Texas Tech. The
path to the Big twelve championship is before BYU, they
got Texas Tech. You got to focus one game at
a time, obviously, and then you have some other difficult
foes on the schedule. Cincinnati on the road, TCU at home,
UCF at home.
Speaker 3: I think A Rod dubbed this.
Speaker 2: Back end of the schedule starting with U of A
is the most difficult stretch of games in BWAU football history.
I think the only other stretch of games I would
say that could be deemed as more difficult was when
you played in two thousand and four. You guys, had
like Notre Dame and Boise State and USC the national champion,
And what do you recall about that stretch and what
type of toll did that take on your team?
Speaker 4: Well, I remember we had Utah at the end of
the year who was as good and better than USC,
and USC was looked at as one of the best
college football teams ever, which that was obviously hyped up.
But the reality is is that we're equipped for it now.
When we played we did not have the talent the
BYU have today. We didn't have the depth and that
was very evident in all of those games as you
know where you're trying to, you know, muscle ourselves through
those But the reality is is like, yeah, it's it is.
Roderic is correct, it's the herd. I would say this
is the hardest stretch in the history of Bulia football. Buck.
We're also the most talented, best coach team in the
history of football right now. And that's not taking anything
away from the past. We're just talking about the whole
new set of resources that sets the standard at a
completely different level where you're able to pay your best coaches,
pay to get your best players, and that just makes
it to where you can get the best talent and
the best coaching. So we're ready. I mean, we're equipped
to go through and be fine. I don't see any
problem with this. We're right where we want to be.
Like I said, it comes down to execution, comes down
to playing clean, and that's this is how you play.
When you're at a level of football where everybody's talent
is basically equal. The differentiator comes down to being clean
and how you play. And that's why I like our
guys in these situations. That's what we have with YU
And you got to give the coaching staff a lot
of credit. You got to give the players a lot
of credit for learning these schemes. But when we play clean,
it doesn't matter who we face. We are really really
hard to be.
Speaker 2: One of the differentiators in many of these games has
been special teams. I was looking at the analytics and
once again, BYU has a significant competitive advantage and efficiency
metrics on the special teams. By US ranked six in
the country, Texas tak eightieth in the country. You know
how will be while you maybe navigate that competitive advantage,
where do you see that playing out?
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, I mean it plays out in field position
it plays out in potential fake punts. You know, there's
there's a lot of you know, fake kicks. You know,
Kelly does a nice job too of mixing in a
lot of different style of kickoffs. We saw that against
I think it was Utah where they did like kind
of that squid and they almost go Maybe it was
against the team before where they got they squibbed it
just kind of knowing that the team that they're facing
wasn't ever going to run back a kickoff, trying to
force them to to to run one back and they
almost got the fumble recovery and they pinned them inside
the twenty five. You know, so there's there's all these
nuances that Kelly does. It's really nice. But overall, I
think what special teams does our school at BYU is
they energize the team. You know, they got starters playing
on the team, but you just got guys that are
just selling out. Guys see that. They respond to that
kind of energy, and it kind of trickles to all
the other units offensive and defensively because they're all mixed
with offense and the defensive guy. So it kind of
stirs the pot, so to speak. So it's a. It's
an important part of what we do. And Kelly and
Kwani and their coaching staff, Jay's involved in this heavily
also knows that, and they come into every game ready
and prepared to call fakes at the most darnest times. Man.
And I will give us a little inside information to
people right here. I want everybody to know that. Kelly
will and I'm not going to tell you the circumstances,
but Kelly will say to me, Brady, on this circumstance,
we were gonna call a fake and I decided not to.
And I'm like, Kelly, you're scaring me. Man, You're just
scared me. But if you look at his you know,
his his rate of fake successes, you're like, I get,
I get why he's like so confident.
Speaker 3: Well, very killan.
Speaker 2: He's one of the most aggressive fourth down play callers
in the country since twenty sixteen. Like, I don't know
if he goes forward on fourth down more than anybody,
but he's got to be up there.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah. But the thing is that they don't just
do that out of haste. You know, they're not just
throwing yeah, let's just do it. They have a whole
analytics that they go with and they base it off
of that, and they have also a field. But the
most part they're they're just looking at indicators. You know,
they're playing the game of the percentages more than playing
what tradition says, Oh, we're at the forty nine and
it's fourth and one. Okay, let's pump the ball. I mean, member,
that used to be kind of the thing back in
the day. Now if you look at the analytics, it's like, no,
you should go for it, because the upside far out
weighs the downside to the point where, yeah, even the
worst thing that possibly could happen still isn't that bad
considering what could be earned if you got that one yard.
And then you got to figure, well, how confident are
we and getting a yard? You know what, It's like,
we should be confident. If not, we shouldn't even you know,
feel like we should win the game in some ways,
you know. And so yeah, I mean it's a completely
different level to have a completely different feel. But yeah,
he was like, when Kelly was talking like that, I'm like, man,
you're scaring me. But at the same time, I was like, dude,
I like him.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: In my head, I was like, I didn't say anything
about it, but I was just like, I like it though,
because he doesn't allow tradition, and the clanies the same way.
They don't allow tradition to play a part into their
analytical decisions. They just go with the numbers and with
what their indicators are, and they're disciplined to that. So
that's why I was like, from a Texas tech perspective,
or any opponent of BIU from a special team standpoint,
you better spend time practicing every punt, fake punt you
can imagine, every fake, little on site nuanced kick you
can imagine. You got to be able to you know, reverses.
They have these cool little plays and their return game.
They're really difficult. And then at the same time you
have to be smart with yourself scouting and not overload
yourself to where you're susceptible. I mean it, it creates nightmares,
and that might be another advantage. They just teams probably
either have to spend more time on special teams or
they have to spend more mental energy worrying about fakes
that maybe potentially can take away from other areas that
they otherwise would be preparing.
Speaker 2: At this BAU Texas Tech game got a little bit
nasty when the last time they played at Lavelle Edwards Stadium,
there was a lot of spit going on.
Speaker 3: Do you remember this.
Speaker 2: They're the Texas Tech football players were spitting on Bau's play.
Speaker 3: Finally they they got called for it. I think.
Speaker 4: Bad though. I think it's just some of the guys.
You know, I remember when I played, you had a
couple of guys that were go unhinged and they kind
of lose their minds and you're like, what the heck?
That really escalated from zero to one hundred bots an
hour in a second. And usually those guys are not
playing any longer because you have to have some poise
about you. But no, I don't think there was any
anything personal. You know, there was nothing that was like,
you know, uh to where it was like on the
verge of fights. I thought it was overall respectful except
those isolated incidences, you know what I'm saying, Like, I
don't think it was really that big a deal outside
of the spit flying. And like I said, I was
one guy and he was immediately removed from the game
by his coach. He didn't even see the field after that.
It's kind of sad for him. But but I was
at the game. I was on the sideline. That was
one of my first games that I've come to as
an embedded between quotations guy with YU and and you know, Texas,
tex got playmakers. Man, they got guys, and they're even
better now, you know, so they're a good team.
Speaker 2: Crazy times in college football? What do you make of
all the cannibalism going on as well? Big ten sec
acc everybody seems they've they've got like two losses or
maybe an embarrassing one loss to a team that they
probably you know, purportedly shouldn't have lost to.
Speaker 3: What do you make of it?
Speaker 4: Well, there's just more and more parody, you know what
I mean. The biggest indicator is that we have Nick
Saban no longer coaching. I don't think people really know
Nick Saban's story in the NFL, but his story in
the NFL in two thousand and five or six, No,
two thousand and five, it is my rookie year, was
that he couldn't be an authoritative person in the NFL.
He actually had to be somebody who decided to, hey,
I gotta coach with these guys, and I gotta, I gotta,
I gotta build a culture that allows for guys to
like want to actually come here and want to actually
play here, even if I'm coaching him, you know. And
he didn't like that because they weren't very good. He
lost his control of the team. And then he immediately
goes to college. And in college, you know, when there's
no transferring, you can treat guys as poorly as you
want them, you know, you can. You can be rate them,
you can humiliate them, and that's kind of that old
school coaching that Nick Saban profess. And then you know,
I mean it's very common. I talked to my former
teammates in the NFL who are Alabama guys. This isn't
new news. I'm not breaking any news right now. But
they paid guys before you could actually pay guys, so
they had a corner on all these market you know,
paying all these this talent, you could control them, and
it did. It created a lack of parody, and it
tilted the you know, the the advantage in their favor.
And other teams that did the same thing, and both
the Big ten the SEC and all of a sudden,
you don't have Nick Saban coaching because he can't thrive
in this environment, just like he couldn't thrive in Miami.
And I look at college football now as a close
and is paralleled to the NFL because it's like free agency,
but it's every year free agency. So you have to
have a coaching staff that's enjoyable to work with that
they're going to develop you. And then at the same time,
you know, you can acquire talent in the open market.
And so every year, like Utah, I mean they want
from a really bought basement, basement, bottom of the basement
team last year, and then they rebuilt through the portal
basically and through hiring you know, John Beck and getting
Dan Pierre or Jason Beck excuse me to now having
a legit, you know, top tiered offense in the in
the whole college football, you know. So it's just more parody,
that's the bottom line. It's more parody. And like I said,
the big indicator that as you look at a guy
like Nick Saban, the fact that he doesn't want to
play and he's cried that it's actually unfair, that's a
good sign we all should be worried if all of
a sudden he gets back into coaching. We should all
be like, well, the system's changing, we should all be concerned.
But no, I think this is the best time college
football has ever been because I even with b YU
at eight to zero, I'm not feeling this stress like,
oh man, we better go undefeated or are chances that
going for a championship are gone. I don't feel that
way at all. You know, I feel like, hey, we
got to get better week in and week out. We
got to go compete. But it's not like there's zero
margin of air here. You know, we could go and
have a hiccup here and pick ourselves up and win there,
and even have another hiccup and still find ourselves in
the championship game. And that's why, like, the rankings really
don't mean much to me right now, because it's like,
who cares, We're gonna this is long gonna play out anyway.
You know, whether we're in top ten, we're in the
top five, top twenty five, doesn't matter. You know, we're
gonna get a chance to either qualify for the championship
for the conference or not. If we do, we're gonna
have a chance then to go face whoever's gonna be
in that championship game to then qualify for a playoff
spot or a big boat or not. And it's all
gonna be determined a on the field. That's all you
can ask one. That's why it's a beautiful system.
Speaker 2: Yes, indeed, Great Insight is always ready for pick a brady.
Last thing, for those that are looking to build out
a gym at their home or at their commercial space,
why should they contact you and get involved with the
XPT the XPT dot com.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The biggest thing we want to show is that we
are number one customer service. That's why we first out
of the gate offer a free service, which is a
gym design service. Doesn't matter to the size of the space.
It could be a room in your home or a
huge twenty thousand foot commercial space. It's a design service
to where we add in or we input the dimensions
of the space into our three D software system. We
take your input from the equipment you want, the type
of flooring, the mirrors, how you ideally you'd like it configured.
We then build you a design based off of those parameters. Afterwards,
we collaborate and we dial that design into exactly what
you'd like. You'll be able to see it literally just
as though it was already installed in a digital format,
and then afterwards we were able to implement everything. We're
able to take you from the process of you're you know,
having the perfect gym and visualize in your mind all
the way to the implementation of that installation. Again, it's
a free service. You could contact me directly at eight
oh one three six eight one one o two that's
ATO one three six eight one one oh two to
begin that process. And also we can talk a little
by football if you wanted too, in the middle of it.
But it's something that is an opportunity for us to
earn your trust to do it without showing that hey
we we're only going to help you if you if
you pay us, you know, and that's not what we're about.
We want to do a good job because that's the
right thing to do.
Speaker 2: Boom shaka Laca. Well can't wait for this BYU Texas
Tech Matchup. It's a big one. Hopefully there's no spit
projectiles uh this game.
Speaker 3: Last time I posted the evidence.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you saw this, but I posted
a few videos or the evidence of the spittle projectiles
and some crazy tech fans went onto my orthopros Google
review side eight and started giving me one star reviews.
I had like four or five of them. I remember
that it's crazy, bro. I had to go U. I
had to go to Google and say, hey, these are
these are not of our any of our customers is crazy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well that's just petty ess at its best and
uh sorry you have to go through that band. But
you know, at the end of the day, some people
just start dumb. Just what happens. People are stupid.
Speaker 3: All right, Brady, We appreciate you man. Thanks for hopping
on is always always pleasure.
Speaker 4: Buddy, go koogs.
Speaker 3: Thank you ready for pinging Ladies and gentlemen.
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beautiful Monday novepter third edition of Cougar Sports.
Speaker 3: What a fantastic show was.
Speaker 2: We appreciate you guys, uh showing up, showing out today
on your Utah ESPN Radio Network, Big Cougar RD to
Brady Papinga as well as John Beck former by U
rates talking Ball with us, Talking Brigham with us as
b Will you preps for this massive game versus Texas Tech.
This has never happened before. Guys, It is crazy. It
is insane BYU being a top ten team and they
are facing a top ten team right the highest ranked
opponent that by who has faced while being a top
ten teams. There's two occasions, and they were both ranked
fourteenth in the country. It was Cosa, Carolina in twenty
twenty and then nineteen ninety seven Cotton Bowl Kansas State.
Those are the highest ranked teams that boy has played
when they were a top ten team. Pretty crazy to
think that this is going to be a game in
which you know the I don't know if you've ever
been featured in this way in the regular season at least,
and crazy to see it, crazy to experience it in
our modern era twenty twenty five. Lots of things are
cooking with the Cougars right now. Good cooking with the Cougars.
B YU football number eighth in the country, number eight
in the country, as well as BAU basketball number eight
in the country. Tip off for the BOAU men's basketball
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